-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Countries rarely default , at least not under the basic understanding of the term .

If you or I ca n't pay our bills and creditors come calling , eventually we can declare bankruptcy and painfully move on . Most of our creditors get little or nothing back . And companies to do it all the time -- indeed , it seems a matter of course for U.S. airlines .

But countries do n't really go bankrupt . They choose to stop paying , one way or another .

The difference ? Countries get new tax payers every day . They are born or they migrate . Countries can not become insolvent . They stop paying to save money .

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How do they choose to default ? Politicians can flirt with financial suicide , as some members of the U.S. Congress are fond of doing . But let 's be clear , the U.S. was not going to default . The showdown was just politics .

`` The United States has enormous credibility and is at no risk of default , '' Anne Pettifor , of Prime Economics , told me . `` In my view there is no possibility whatsoever of the USA defaulting on its debt . ''

So , the USA can not really default , thanks in part to a strong Federal Reserve and international creditors still wanting to buy its bonds , no matter how low the interest rate falls .

But other countries have chosen to default , at least in theory . From Argentina to Russia to North Korea , countries have stopped paying the interest or principle on domestic or international obligations .

In Russia 's case , it was able to pay back creditors within a few years , thanks to the rise of energy prices . Russia did not walk away from its creditors .

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Argentina was a much tougher case . When it stopped paying creditors in late 2001 , it caused a great deal of pain for its citizens in 2002-2003 . Its efforts to settle with creditors still bubble up in New York courts . No one can say Argentina has fully recovered its reputation in the international markets . Some bondholders simply refuse to take a portion of what they are owed and move on . They want their money back .

Still its economy grew quickly within a few years of default . Does that mean that defaulting is not a terrible step ? After all , it means a country can get a handle on its obligations .

`` The debts become more manageable and therefore the country becomes more creditworthy , '' Pettifor said . Then , however , `` the creditors pile in . ''

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Nazi Germany defaulted in 1933 . The new government was not going to honor the obligations of the previous leaders . We all know how that went . It was decades before some of the German debt was paid back in a token way .

No eurozone country has unilaterally refused to pay its bills . The market made it impossible for the like of Ireland and Greece to issue new bonds at a sustainable interest rate . New creditors stepped in , instead of walking away . We know them as the troika -- made up of the European Central Bank , European Union and International Monetary Fund .

Greece 's meltdown led to bondholders taking the `` haircut , '' yet the country is set to take another package of aid . But it ca n't inflate its currency -LRB- it lost that option when it joined the euro -RRB- and ca n't default -LRB- for the same reason -RRB- .

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The latest plan is not the bailout , but the `` bail-in . '' Look at Cyprus . Bond holders hold off , the depositors pay up -LRB- those forced to bail-in -RRB- and everyone holds their breath hoping the country can rebuild its economy and banking sector and eventually pay back something .

After all , the troika expects to be paid back . If not , that would be a default . All this makes you wonder why the USA would even want to be mentioned in the same breath or paragraph with these countries .

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People and companies default -- but countries rarely do , at least in the traditional sense

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U.S. politicians play financial brinkmanship but the country was not at risk of default

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Other countries have defaulted -- including Argentina and Russia

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And some , history shows , have been economically better off for having done so